


we'll always be like one

by londer



Series: five plus ones [5]
Category: Dimension 20, Fantasy High
Genre: 6+1, Bloodrush, Driving Lessons, Graduation, Grease the Musical as a plot device, being too competitive about clue, ragh is a large boy with good friends, solstice party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:00:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24596413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer
Summary: Six times Ragh hung out with a Bad Kid, and one time they all came together to celebrate
Relationships: Ragh Barkrock & Adaine Abernant, Ragh Barkrock & Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Ragh Barkrock & Figueroth Faeth, Ragh Barkrock & Gorgug Thistlespring, Ragh Barkrock & Kristen Applebees, Ragh Barkrock & Riz Gukgak
Series: five plus ones [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025167
Comments: 17
Kudos: 147





	we'll always be like one

_ one: ragh & fabian _

Fabian pulls up to a stop sign and Ragh grabs the panic handle to keep from going headfirst into the dash. It’s the first time Fabian’s driven anywhere that wasn’t doing donuts in a parking lot, and his technique...leaves a lot to be desired. He thought it was tight that Fabian asked him to teach him how to drive. Ragh’s starting to think he should’ve asked Cathilda to do it.

“You’ve gotta be gentler, bro,” Ragh says, still holding on for dear life. “Start slowing down sooner, you can’t brake when you’re  _ at the stop sign _ .”

Fabian huffs. He looks kinda sweaty and nervous, which is a little unsettling. “Okay. Yeah. This is...not like the Hangman. The Hangman kind of...does it for you.”

“You’re doing fine,” Ragh tells him, tries to relax into his seat. “Use your turn signal and go right. Don’t think too hard about it, nice and gentle.”

They make it around the block at a snail’s pace, lots of stopping and jolting as Fabian ties to understand the gas pedal’s sensitivity. Fabian white knuckles the wheel with both hands the entire time. Ragh tries to give him supportive words and not brace himself too hard as they go bumping along the quiet street, make it back to the front of Mordred Manor.

“Maybe I’m just a motorcycle guy,” Fabian says. He looks a little green and puts the car in park. “I don’t have to get my license, Fig or Gorgug or you can drive if we need to get somewhere in a car.”

Ragh pats his arm, already heaving himself out of the car. “Best idea you’ve ever had, cap.”

_ two: ragh & kristen _

Ragh loses his eyebrows during the first alchemistry lab he and Kristen are partnered together. She laughs so hard she falls off of her stool and then he gets to laugh at her. They work together for the rest of the year, despite their teacher’s attempts to separate them. 

It takes months for his eyebrows to grow back, but when they do, Kristen helps him shave little double slits in one of them, as a subtle yo-I’m-gay-bro. They spend hours together after school redoing basically every lab. Sometimes it works. Mostly they set off the fire alarms or sprinklers until the teacher gets sick of them and sends them home. 

Titration really gets them - neither are dextrous enough to set it up well and they keep fucking it up and sending showers of magical sparks everywhere. 

“We’re gonna fail,” Ragh says despairingly one day. “We’re gonna fail, and I’m going to have to repeat this year, and-“

Kristen places a hand on his shoulder. “Ragh, they can’t fail us, ‘cause if they do we’ll have to take it again and I don’t think this centaur’s nerves can take another year of us blowing shit up.”

(They don’t  _ deliberately _ break things more often after that, but hey, the more sinks that fill with arcane fire, the more likely it is they both get Ds and get out.)

_ three: ragh & riz _

Ragh’s built like a fucking truck, okay, Riz can try and resist being picked up and forcibly removed from his office all he likes but it’s not going to do him much good. He squawks loudly the entire walk out of Strongtower and tries to bite Ragh (“It’s like being bitten by a puppy, dude, are you even trying?”). 

They get into Ragh’s car, and Riz has pretty much given up fighting, which is good but also sad because Ragh had a pretty good zinger about baby seats cooked up. 

“Dude, I promise your case can wait. My mom’s making meatballs tonight and you  _ said  _ you would come over for dinner and game night.” It’s hard to pout around his tusks but Ragh gives it his best shot anyways. 

“Fine,” Riz says, slouching into his seat. He  _ is  _ hungry and also Lydia and Sklonda are friends and if his mom finds out he was rude she’ll kick his ass. “Sounds really good.” 

Ragh beams; his mom’s cooking is the  _ best. _ “Then after dinner I’m gonna destroy you at Clue.” 

Riz sits bolt upright in the passenger seat, catlike pupils narrowing. “Oh? We’ll see about that.”

_ four: ragh & adaine _

Adaine doesn’t scream in pain, but her grip on Ragh’s hand is absolutely lethal. “This was my worst idea ever. I’m the dumbest person alive. This is hell. I’m in hell. I’ve  _ been to hell _ and it was  **_better than this_ ** .”

“You got this,” he says, letting her take it out on his hand. He’s maybe losing a couple hit points, but he’s got plenty to spare. “Squeeze as hard as you want.”

“You’re being really brave,” says the tiefling piercing Adaine’s ear. “Elf ears are dumb sensitive. Most people cry or can’t get through both sides, especially since _healing word_ will just heal the hole and push the earring out.” They pull away, drop the first needle into a sharps container and screw a back onto the earring. “One done, one to go kiddo.” 

Adaine huffs in frustration, rolls her shoulders as Ragh and the tiefling switch sides. Her face is flushed and her eyes are a little watery, but she smiles up at him. This means a lot to her - a simple way to continue to defy her parents. He was honored when she asked him to come along for moral support.

“You’re gonna look so fucking cool when these are done Adaine,” he says. “Fig’s gonna flip out.” 

“She’s gonna be - ah! - so pissed I didn’t bring her,” Adaine says, clamping down on his hand again as the next needle is pressed in. “I think she would’ve freaked me out too much to go through with it, though.” He nods. Fig’s a lot and that’s not always good for Adaine’s anxiety. The needle is through and her face relaxes as the tiefling pulls away. 

“Looks good,” Ragh says. She picked these cute little moon-shaped studs that really add to her witchy elf thing. He idly wonders if they make BloodRush themed earrings, then decides they would probably just get ripped out on the field. “Ice cream?”

“Ooooh yes please!”

_ five: ragh & fig _

Fig drags Ragh around the tree farm for hours before she finally declares they've found the one. It's a fucking monstrous thing, eighteen feet tall and bushy as fuck.  They set it up in the living room of Mordred Manor (Ragh does most of the heavy lifting), and set to decorating. The Solstice party’s tonight, so there’s no time to fuss about ornament placement, so the nice crystalline ornaments end up right next to Fig's old art projects. Fig gets the lower half of the tree, Ragh gets the top, and she  climbs on his shoulders to put the little star on very top.

The caterers arrive and Fig coordinates getting the food organized buffet-style in the kitchen . (“It’s called  _ quality control _ , Ragh, it’s not sneaking!”) Ragh lights a fire in the enormous black marble fireplace in the living room, puts out the bowls of shrimp cocktail, platters of crudité, and cheese plates the caterers brought, fluffs the pillows and tucks them into festive little pillowcases with trees and snow on them.

They set the dining room table in green and gold, moving efficiently to put up centerpieces and set out plates. There’s a brief diversion to argue about where to put mistletoe: Fig thinks it should be a public embarrassment, Ragh thinks it should be somewhere more private so people have a harder time avoiding the  _ hold person _ that kicks in when two people get too close to it at once. They compromise and put it in the secret passage between the kitchen and dining room, where it’ll hopefully catch people trying to take a shortcut. 

Lydia gets back from the liquor store and helps them set up the booze station.  Sandra Lynn immediately comes down from her room and casts  _ alarm _ on the table to keep all the teens away, which Fig loudly protests. (Ragh knows it’s just for show, though. There’s plenty of illicit alcohol in Fig’s room for them to spike their drinks with.)

Half an hour before their guests are set to arrive they declare the house decorated and party ready, slap high fives, and separate to get changed.

  
  


_ six: ragh & gorgug _

It’s dark backstage in the theater and Ragh scratches at the collar of his leather jacket as they wait for the lights to go up for the opening number. It’s still not entirely clear to him how he went from taking a set design class with Gorgug for an easy arts elective to the ensemble of Aguefort’s spring production of  _ Grease.  _ Something about needing more boys who could do lifts. He definitely thought Mr. Pepper had meant lifting weights, but it turned out he actually meant lifting girls as part of dances. 

By the time he worked that out he had already committed and Ragh’s a man of his word, okay. So he’s been going to rehearsals with Gorgug after school three days a week. His dance partner is a super chill elven sophomore who’s been really patient as he learned the footwork. He’s pretty sure she’s only putting up with him because he could lift her no problem and that means they get to do more complicated choreography like tosses. 

So now he and Gorgug are in the wings waiting for their entrance in leather jackets, and this guy Hargis is behind them about to vibrate out of his fucking skin. 

“Spring break I believe in you,” Ragh says softly, offers a fist to bump with Gorgug. 

“Yeah,” Gorgug says. “Spring break!” 

“Other bad kids here tonight?” Ragh asks. He wants to try and peek out at the audience so fucking bad but Mr. Pepper was very clear that that wasn't cool. 

“Yeah. And Zelda. And the seven maidens. And my parents. And the Bad Kid’s parents. And-”

“Bro,” Ragh says. “Don’t freak out, it’s gonna be sick. We practiced  _ so hard, _ bro.” Hargis makes a little noise behind them about  _ it’s called rehearSAL _ but Ragh ignores him. 

“I know,” Gorgug says, sighs. “It’s just, like, what if I drop her?” 

“Dude, your dex is fine, you’ll do great,” Ragh slaps his shoulder. “Hoot growl baby!” 

“Hoot growl!” They chest pump as the orchestra starts playing the first overture.

_ +one: ragh & the bad kids _

Ragh graduates (on time!) to raucous applause from his family, with Fabian leading the entire auditorium into  _ HOOT! GROWL! _ ing for him. He smiles for pictures with his mom and with the Bad Kids, who make him take a million group photos and then individual ones with them too. He gets photos with the BloodRush team, and the  _ Grease _ cast, and the other graduating barbarians, and the LGBT Alliance. Everybody cries and laughs and holds each other, and it’s awesome.

He does the postgrad lock-in with his class where they literally get locked up in the basement of the school and have to escape while the underclassmen try to stop them. If more than half the seniors get out before dawn, they win, and the class is granted a Blessing for their first quest as graduates. If they underclassmen win, they get a pizza party.

It’s no holds barred chaos: he dunks Fabian into a trashcan and Riz and Kristen are so busy laughing that they don’t even notice when he barrels past them and out a classroom window to victory. The seniors win by one when a dwarven artificer kid blows up the side of the school and the last group of seniors they need to win launch themselves out of the wreckage and run to the screaming crowd on the BloodRush field. 

He has his graduation party the next day, no sleep in between, just a chill all-day thing on the back lawn of Mordred Manor. The weather is perfect, flawlessly clear and sunny. They set up a big tent in the yard for some shade and put out a bunch of lawn games and snacks. Fabian sulks for a little bit until Ragh lets him win at cornhole and then they eat hotdogs together faster than Jawbone can grill them. Riz and Gorgug kick his and Adaine’s asses at badminton as Kristen sits on the sidelines and heckles them. 

The sun goes down and the adults all go inside, yelling warnings to not stay up too late. All that's left outside is just a messy pile of teens to sit around in the cool grass, look up at the stars, and talk about the endless possibilities before them.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://elsie-writes.tumblr.com)


End file.
